Willett shares Wentworth lead

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  • May 27, 2016

Danny Willett, Scott Hend and Y.E Yang are at the front of the field at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club.

While the weather was relatively calm in Surrey on Friday, the golf was wild, particularly from Willett.

Playing his second competitive round in England since winning his maiden major title at Augusta, Willett started Friday in sublime fashion as he stormed to the turn having carded a tournament-record 29 courtesy of six birdies in seven holes starting at the third. That saw him assume the lead after his 65 on Thursday.

As news whistled around the course that the 28-year-old from Sheffield was on track to smash the 36-hole scoring record of 13-under-par, the air became thick with a sense of expectation.

And that pressure seemed to affect the usually-unknotted Willett who limped home with an untidy 39 after making bogey at 10, 15, 16 and 17 and then finding the composure to regroup and birdie 18.  

While visibly frustrated at his back nine, Willett insisted that ten-under-par was a great score and seemed proud of himself for keeping it all together when others might not have.

"I played great most of the day and then chucked a couple of horrid shots in there," Willett said.

"I had a slow walk from 17 to 18 to try and gather my thoughts and after hitting two lovely shots into the last I came off with a slightly better taste in my mouth.

"You could have just chucked it and finished really poorly, but to make birdie on the last was good and shows a little bit of mental strength."

Hend's 69 on Friday got him to 10-under for the tournament too while Yang, who created history in 2009 as the first man to come from behind to beat Tiger Woods in the final round of a major, carded four birdies, an eagle and three bogeys to make it a three-way traffic jam at the top of the leaderboard.

South Africa's Jaco van Zyl is a shot behind in fourth.

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